Live According to Christ

Dan Doyle

By Dan Doyle

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You must live your whole life according to the Christ you have revived, Jesus, the Lord; you must be rooted in him and built on him and held firm by the faith you have been taught, and full of thanksgiving. Make sure that no one traps you and deprives you of your freedom by some secondhand, empty, rational philosophy based on the principles of this world instead of on Christ. – Colossians 2:6-8

There is no human philosophy that can compete with the truth of Christ. All of the political and social philosophies of men are ultimately incomplete. Many are outright dillusions. Some are even in direct enmity with the message of Christ. They make themselves very attractive, though, dressing themselves up in the ‘principles’ of this world. But they all fail to achieve the fullness of truth about the meaning and the purpose of life that Jesus gives us. For example, all of man’s varied philosophies of justice based on human principles have all failed to bring about anything close to universal justice in the world.

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In truth, the only justice that is perfect is this: “So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the law and the prophets.” (Matthew 7:12) Justice does not come about as the result of human laws, or philosophies, but rather as the result of love. Only Christ’s justice is the product of love. This is the justice that Jesus calls us to: “My commandment is this: love one another as I have loved you. The greatest love a person can have for others is to give his life for them.” (John 15:12-13) Since we have been buried and raised up again in Christ through his forgiveness of our debts, we must “…live our whole lives according to the Christ we have received, Jesus, the Lord.” If we want to be just, we must abjure all human philosophies and, instead, be rooted in Christ, built on him, holding on firmly in faith to what we have been taught by him, always full of thanksgiving. Amen!

Dan Doyle is a husband, father, grandfather, Vietnam veteran, and retired professor of Humanities at Seattle University. He taught 13 years at the high school level and 22 years at the university level. He spends his time now babysitting his granddaughter. He is a poet and a blogger as well. Dan holds an AA degree in English Literature, a BA in Comparative Literature, and an MA in Theology, and writes regularly for The Veterans Site blog.